*
(Josh)
We were boarding the black, slick plane. After Commander Astrid told us that Safe Zone 4 was under attack and that they needed reinforcements, I sighed.
It's only been three months and the finale seems to peaking over the horizon.
No doubt this mission will be riddled with trouble. Everyone can guess the enemy's objective at this point. Quite frankly, I was expecting it to be our base up next for an attack.
The overall number of Elite Invigorated is in the hundreds. The odds are against us and we can't be stingy or too caring in such a case where hundreds of thousands of people are at risk.
Some of the new recruits were picked by me and Astrid to join the team going to offer reinforcements. There was no time to argue, we geared up and went in the plane.
We sat in the plane, weapons in duffel bags.
Rifles, explosives, tactical knives and sabres were among the tools we were going to use.
I sat at the left side of the plane and clipped the seat belt attached to the wall of the plane. This small plane was the fastest one we had. It was meant for situations like the one we were in now, where rapid aid was in order.
Across from me sat a few faces that I have been seeing quite a lot of past weeks.
Ana, Nicholas, Paul and Bernard.
Ana has improved over the few weeks we have been doing training. She has gained some muscle, and her face looks much healthier. She has a decent level of mastery over combat arts. Her most notable achievement is her mastery over quick jabs. Even I was surprised. She never misses a vital spot in a spar and I've heard from Sandra that she is the best shooter in her classes.
Nicholas has also gained mass. He is quite tall and his chestnut hair has been made into a proper crew cut. His build is the biggest out of the four. He excels at launching heavy hits with his body and his exercises with Astrid have helped him a lot into supplementing his skill.
Next is Paul. The dude that I made a demonstration out of first on the day of introduction to the practical classes. He had hated me since then, but after he learned that my training methods actually did him well, he is one step closer to calling me Big Brother, despite the fact that I'm only 28.
Then there is Bernard. The brazen fellow. He is quite interesting to me. At best, he is a jack of all trades and master of none. Perhaps his marksmanship edges over the other categories, but he is actually well balanced. My first interaction with him was when I was out on the scouting mission. I had a very bad impression of him then. The look in his eyes showed that he had not been fighting for his life during his time outside the Safe Zones and was rather holed up somewhere. I hated such an attitude. It was unbecoming of a man I share the same age as.
Even as indifferent as I usually am to most things, that left quite the bad taste in my mouth.
However, as time went on, I saw how devoted he was to improve his physical aptitude. He is greedy in a way. Asks a lot of questions and masticates over the answers finely.
I can say he's not so bad.
We had scheduled for Innate Ability training to be done this week and get familiar with all the recruits' abilities, but unfortunately the mission took that away. At least for now. Having them training their physiques and innate abilities at the same time would kill them.
These four were selected because they are overally showing progress that exceeds the others by a degree.
I know what you're thinking.
No, it's not a risk to add them to the team. They are not supposed to be engaging on the front lines anyway. They will be responsible for sharp shooting and evacuating civilians. They are supposed to gain experience through this mission and dare I say we needed such recruits that we could at least be confident of their safety.
At that moment, the last member of the team arrived.
Strapped on her back was a huge water tank encased in a black leather pouch enough to cover it all. The pouch had tough straps, like those on a satchel, which the short girl carrying it used to effortlessly haul the tank.
It was almost as tall as her, with a girth of one and half meters. A large cap was top of the tank, with an opening in the center.
The girl was Yang Hai.
She wore her usually emotionless face. A tube extended from the tank to her mouth. The end of the section connected to her mouth looked like a black hospital respirator, covering half of her face.
She sat down and set the tank beside her. She strapped in and kept the tube in her mouth.
The look on the face of the recruits was priceless.
Particularly Bernard.
He almost blurted out something before receiving Yang Hai's cold gaze.
Shortly after, the plane's engine churned and we lifted off. The speed was unbelievable. It was a plane modified for fast travel so there was no surprise.
"Umm. Josh.. aren't you supposed to be aware of our innate abilities before we actually fight?" Ana asked.
"I don't think simply talking about it will help us get the best understanding of your unique abilities. You'll be more of a support on the battlefield anyway. Engaging in the front lines is out of the question for now.
Besides, I'm not Astrid. I'd rather watch you use them in a tense situation to analyse their full scope," I replied, leaving her both relieved and dumbfounded.
Quite frankly, I have a different outlook on life. Before the apocalypse I had already lost many things. I don't actually have emotional ties to the aspect of humanity to the extent that I'd mourn over our extinction.
My parents died when I was young and I was left to be taken in by my aunt and her husband. They were nice to me, always asking what I wanted.
Life was given to me on a silver platter. The latest phones, laptop, clothes, money and many more.
However, how can material things measure up to the love of a parent? I loved my mother and father so dearly. It wasn't because they dotted on me too much. It was the opposite. At the age of 8, my father was already teaching me how to be man.
Don't get me wrong. I was still treated like a kid, but my father always said,' Son. To be a man is to carry responsibility for all your actions. Good or bad. However, such an attitude can only be perfected when you learn it in your youth.'
Valuable life lessons were the Order of the day. From him I could feel the presence of a father and a teacher. Deep within me. I knew he was preparing me for the hell hole that was life.
My mother was a perfectionist. She always told me that she wanted nothing but the best in life for me. From my skin, to my body and even to my girlfriends. She was a wingman. She did not tolerate any crude behavior from me to such an extent that my life became a merit based work system.
I loved it. I loved them. They wanted the best for me.
Then, the fires of an accident claimed them on their way back home one day.
I wanted to keep their teachings alive, to become the best, the perfect me. But, I couldn't. I felt so alone that no amount of external love could penetrate me.
I turned into an introvert and drove everyone away. No one was able to replicate my parents' love and I couldn't love anyone that wasn't them. I slowly turned indifferent to the world and lived in my own world of education, novels and loneliness.
I aced my education and embraced fantasy and tore every love letter that was ever left in my locker. My pride and joy became my personal space.
After some time we reached our destination, but contrary to our expectations, the battle wasn't beginning, it was already quarter time.
From the air, we could see and hear screams and gunshots as the plane pad opened up.
Stragglers had breached the wall.
Safe Zone 4 was on the Asian continent, South West of Europe.
Like all the other Safe Zones, it had a large wall erected around and residential areas for the masses.
However, the wall had been torn down and multitudes of Stragglers were rushing in. Animal types, humanoid types, plant types and hybrid types were all infiltrating.
It was chaos.
The new recruits were flabbergasted. It was probably their first time seeing a massive number of people being attacked by Stragglers.
Unfortunately, some of the reinforcements had not arrived and the already existing Invigorated were being pushed back.
I watched as a humanoid stragglers with purple skin and a bald head rush towards a fleeing woman and bite her neck viciously. It twisted its head and bit off a large chunk of her flesh while in process, the woman screamed and turned into a husk.
This was happening everywhere.
People were dying and the response was slow. The stragglers were fast. The smaller ones were the ones rushing faster than the larger ones.
From the air, I saw potential grade A Stragglers. Four them. One was burly humanoid with thick purple veins and white eyes. He was dressed in the remnants of what looked like a pair of jeans and a shirt.
The other two were animal types. One looked like a lion with a humanoid physique and a height of over 2 meters. It's chest was muscular and its thick arms had pulsing muscles, its hands with vicious dark claws. It legs were straight and it walked briskly as it roared.
The other was a massive Eagle with a wing span of at least 50 meters. It hovered over the ground, its purple and red wings releasing visible gusts of wind. It dived down occasionally to reap a life or two and took to the skies again. It was looking for something.
The last one was the largest creature around. It was a gigantic.... tree.
It had limbs and a bark so dark that it looked impenetrable. It was slow, its thick legs pounding on the ground with vicious power. It's head was humanoid and the leaves seemed to be the hair as they were concentrated on top of its head.
A thick purple hue was being emitted from its body.
That thing needs to be stopped.
The weaker Stragglers looked to rather hungry, running up buildings and tearing apart every human that they saw mercilessly.
"Alright gang. It seems I was wrong. You'll be joining the fight," I said nonchalantly.
The looks on the faces of the recruits were agitated. The view of humans dying like animals was too much for them. They were disgusted and even eager. That was the best attitude. Our next deal was to drop off to the position where civilians were being gathered in the perimeter of the base that was in the center of the Safe Zone.
"Let's drop. Don't worry about the distance. You're stronger than you think," I said to them.
We were roughly 500 meters from the ground. However, there was a landing pad on top of the base. It was roughly a 200 meter descent if we jumped from the plane.
Yang Hai led by example. She wore the massive tank like a satchel without even flinching and jumped out.
She dropped like a bullet, going legs first down to the base.
When she was about to land she spread her legs and received the impact.
BOOM!
She stood without staggering, the dust lifting off from where she landed as she waited for us.
The recruits were hesitant, but eventually they dropped down one after the other landing safely.
After reaching the roof, an Invigorated welcomed us into the elevator stationed on top and we were lead down to the ground.
Many people were entering the base, from the wounded to those still in shock.
We passed all these and headed to the front lines were a barricade was erected with many Invigorated going in and out with civilians. Others went were perched on top of the barricade, releasing streams of bullets.
A woman in a similar dark combat suit and an inverted triangular figure was barking orders to the Elite Invigorated. She had a full head of light ash blonde hair and sharp features.
"Amelia, good to see you again," I said in a light tone.
"Boy, does this look like a time for pleasantries? Get your squad in right now we're losing lives here!" she yelled at me, unappreciative of my indifference. "Sanjay is taking on the entire West side on his own, the rest needs you!"
"Great! Don't worry, I brought promising combatants. Yang Hai, join the fray," I said to the Asian girl with the tank and she bypassed the 10 meter metal barricade with her tank, the incoming Invigorated giving her way as she rushed forward.
"As for you guys, follow my lead. I'll need to keep tabs on you," I said to the recruits who were all already wielding SIG550 assault rifles with utility belts on their waists full of clips at the ready.
To my surprise Bernard came forth and spoke.
"Um...can I go on ahead? Just for one minute. Then I'll return to your lead," he said.
I was intrigued, is it his innate ability?
I gave a short laugh.
"Sure. Do your thing."
We jogged out to the battlefield , Bernard in the lead.
He held the gun with one hand as its band was strapped over his shoulder.
With his left hand, he reached into his pocket and took out.... dice?
The next moment, he threw them on the ground and.....